Thursday, July 19, 2007

Software that can report impending hard disk failure

SMARTReporter is an application that can warn you of some ATA hard disk failures before they actually happen! It does so by periodically polling the S.M.A.R.T.-status of your hard disk. S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a technology built into most modern hard disks that acts as an "early warning system" for pending drive problems:


SMARTReporter

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Friday, July 13, 2007

Newspaper-Video

For all of those interested in the current debate regarding what is worthy of being put on the web (which is apparently anything and everything) and more importantly onto major newspaper's websites:

Newspaper-Video

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Czech mate and beyond

Hi party people,

I'm in for the blog as well, although I'm still on the road. I'm in Lisbon right now, then going back to Eastern Europe. Prague was utterly amazing. I shot some assignments for the Prague Post while I was there and shot some photo stories (and actually managed to finish them!). :) It's not all updated yet, but if you want to see some photos from Prague, look at my flickr sets: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43028992@N00/sets/

It was wild being in a country where very few people speak English. It taught me to be more patient, to move more quietly, to walk alone, not to fear traffic (!), and communicate more with body language than speech. Some days I didn't talk to another person at all. Not having to interact with people somehow made it easier to look and see the bones of situations underneath things where before people's words have distracted me. Still, I'm really looking forward to being able to talk to my subjects again, at least so I can explain what I do and why they don't need to fear the lens. (The lens is your friend...)

The biggest shock about the trip for me came in terms of realizations about how people relate to public and private space in communism. My Czech friend Tomash explained it to me like this: In the former communist bloc, being in public meant you couldn't smile or appear outwardly happy or another but serious and solidarity-minded. He said, if you smiled, it meant you had something special to smile about, something all your own, which really should be shared with everyone, and why are you hoarding that smile all to yourself! So breaking away from communism meant being able to express emotion in public again, to have thoughts and feelings all your own. Still, old habits are hard to break, and generally Czechs are a stony-faced lot. It was pretty intimidating being confronted with 30 pairs of staring, expressionless eyes the first few times I rode the tram. But the upside is that when a Czech smiles at you, you know you've earned it and they really mean it.

I'm not sure how my internet access will be since I'm going east to Poland and Hungary, and not sure how much I can post, but I'll update when I can. Hope all of you are enjoying life, shooting hard, and having good summers. POST MORE PICS! What are you up to?

Oh, and has anyone heard from my beloved jonhuang.com? (He's probably fallen down a World of Warcraft hole and can't get out.) :)

Sunday, July 8, 2007

the sweetwater project

After a weekend in Sweetwater, Texas, I spent an evening editing photos for The Daily Texan, where I am a photo editor.

I don't know what this is, and I don't know who is reading it, so I suppose some introduction is necessary. I'm Joey Castillo, photojournalist, student and reigning photo editor at The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin.

I spent the weekend in Sweetwater working on a photo package on wind energy, a force that has transformed a ranching town of 11,000 into a renewable energy powerhouse. Wind has brought 200 new jobs a day and millions of dollars of investment into the small West Texas hamlet. There's even talk of getting a Starbucks.

Anyway, because I'm a photo editor, I don't feel comfortable taking the cool assignments and leaving everyone else with crap, so I brought along two photographers from the staff. That made for a good mix, by my count: three photographers and one reporter piled into a beat-to-hell 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan for the 500-mile weekend.

This was the result.

I have always believed in the power of photographs to tell a story, yet when I looked at our takes, I at first saw just a bunch of wind towers. It took a few minutes to distance myself and remember: this is about people. It's about places. It's not about reducing dependence on foreign oil, or meeting some abstract goal of one-percent renewable energy. It's about Rebecca Gunn saving her ranch. It's about kids playing in the shadow of high technology. It's about Mayor Wortham, who's turned his hometown into the wind kingdom of West Texas. And even though it took ten hours on the road and a solid $20 for film, even though it involved toting home 4x5 negatives soaked in bags of caustic water, even though it entailed two days without a shower and two weeks' worth of phone calls, it was a good trip.

So yeah, I'm a little late to the blog party, but hi guys. I'll be posting as often as I can.

Job Opening at Faquier Times-Democrat

From Mark Mulligan:

Wanted to let everyone know that my newspaper is now taking applications for a new staff photographer. The job is posted on JournalismJobs.com here:

http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=795189

It's a full staff job where you'd be joining a staff of three other photographers. You're outfitted with two Canon bodies and glass from 16-300 f2.8 all the way.

The main paper is a twice weekly, Wednesday, Friday, and you also sometimes shoot for a third paper in the neighboring county.

Fauquier County is extremely unique in its proximity to DC (45 miles), but its definite distinction of NOT being an over-developed suburb.

If you have any questions or interest, please let me know. This is a great first "real" photo job (it was/is mine).

Cheers,

Mark Mulligan

--
http://f8inaround.blogspot.com
www.chironphotos.com

Mark Mulligan
Staff Photographer
The Fauquier Times-Democrat
Warrenton, Va 20186
O:540.347.4222
C:832.541.5130
mrkmully@gmail.com

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

From Katie and Audrey

Happy Fourth from the Hyattsville contingent.

Both Katie and I will be shooting the scenes in DC tonight (her because she's being paid, me because it's the Fourth of July and I'm in the nation's capital).

I vote that everyone who shoots festivities today and tonight come back tomorrow and post their best shot, so we can all have a look.

Have fun, be safe and shoot something great.

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